could not well have said which of the two was dead and which was living—­Elena or her husband.  Meantime the captain of the oarsmen, fearing lest the watch (set by the Masters of the Night to keep the peace of Venice) might arrive, was calling on Gerardo to come back.  Gerardo heeded him no whit.  But at the last, compelled by his entreaties, and as it were astonied, he arose, bearing his wife’s corpse in his arms, and carried her clasped against his bosom to the boat, and laid her therein, and sat down by her side and kissed her frequently, and suffered not his friend’s remonstrances.  Force was for the captain, having brought himself into this scrape, that he should now seek refuge by the nearest way from justice.  Therefore he hoved gently from the bank, and plied his oar, and brought the gondola apace into the open waters.  Gerardo still clasped Elena, dying husband by dead wife.  But the sea-breeze freshened towards daybreak; and the captain, looking down upon that pair, and bringing to their faces the light of his boat’s lantern, judged their case not desperate at all.  On Elena’s cheek there was a flush of life less deadly even than the pallor of Gerardo’s forehead.  Thereupon the good man called aloud, and Gerardo started from his grief; and both together they chafed the hands and feet of Elena; and, the sea-breeze aiding with its saltness, they awoke in her the spark of life.

Dimly burned the spark.  But Gerardo, being aware of it, became a man again.  Then, having taken counsel with the captain, both resolved to bear her to that brave man’s mother’s house.  A bed was soon made ready, and food was brought; and after due time, she lifted up her face and knew Gerardo.  The peril of the grave was past, but thought had now to be taken for the future.  Therefore Gerardo, leaving his wife to the captain’s mother, rowed back to the galley and prepared to meet his father.  With good store of merchandise and with great gains from his traffic, he arrived in that old palace on the Grand Canal.  Then having opened to Messer Paolo the matters of his journey, and shown him how he had fared, and set before him tables of disbursements and receipts, he seized the moment of his father’s gladness.  ‘Father,’ he said, and as he spoke he knelt upon his knees, ’Father, I bring you not good store of merchandise and bags of gold alone; I bring you also a wedded wife, whom I have saved this night from death.’  And when the old man’s surprise was quieted, he told him the whole story.  Now Messer Paolo, desiring no better than that his son should wed the heiress of his neighbour, and knowing well that Messer Pietro would make great joy receiving back his daughter from the grave, bade Gerardo in haste take rich apparel and clothe Elena therewith, and fetch her home.  These things were swiftly done; and after evenfall Messer Pietro was bidden to grave business in his neighbour’s palace.  With heavy heart he came, from a house of mourning to a house of gladness.  But there,